Southern Manitoba already had one rare weather occurrence earlier in the week when severe thunderstorms rolled through region, prompting brief warnings in the Morden, Winkler and Emerson areas. You can add in a second unusual meteorological event for this time of year, with hail being reported in the Altona area, as well as a few small hail stones in Winkler, Thursday afternoon.
"There were very rapidly developing storm clouds in the region at the time," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "Because of how quickly those clouds were pushing upward into the atmosphere, the up and downdrafts within them were relatively strong, even though the overall thunderstorm wasn't at severe criteria. Those strong up and downdrafts caused the hail to form, with reports of pea size hail in parts of Altona."
You can watch video of the hail in Altona, below.
Find your official Thanksgiving long weekend forecast, here.
Sumner added this scenario is somewhat common in the cooler months of the year, primarily Spring and early Fall, when there still can be enough instability in the atmosphere to produce weak thunderstorms.
"With the low pressure system that was impacting the province Thursday, it was certainly a cool day, but relatively speaking there were isolated pockets where there was enough instability for thunderstorms to develop," he said. "Yesterday's overall rainfall was a little spotty, especially west of the Red River, as the various waves came off that low as it pulled eastward. The main area of precipitation pulled through southeastern Manitoba early Thursday morning, and that's why the totals in that region are higher than further west."
The below video was taken in Winkler Thursday afternoon.
The following totals are courtesy PembinaValleyOnline Rainwatchers, Environment Canada and the Manitoba Ag Weather Network and are for October 5th through 5am October 6th, unless otherwise noted:
Woodmore - 45mm (1/8 inches)
Steinbach - 24.5mm
Morris - 23.8mm
Plum Coulee - 22.86mm
Winnipeg (airport) - 22.2mm (Thurs only - 9/10th)
Dominion City - 20.8mm (about 8/10)
Elm Creek - 20.1mm
Horndean (north) - 20.0mm
Kane - 18.0mm
Altona (airport) - 15.7mm (about 6/10)
Carman - 13.0mm
Emerson - 12.7mm (Thurs only)
Altona (in town) - 12.5mm (1/2 inch)
Reinland - 11.5mm (Wed and Thurs)
Gretna - 10.9mm (Thurs only)
Jordan - 9.7mm
Winkler (south of city) - 8.1mm
Morden - 7.9mm (Thurs only - about 3/10))
Manitou - 4.1mm
Pilot Mound - 2.9mm (Thurs only)
25mm = 1 inch
Looking ahead to Thanksgiving weekend, a drier and sunnier pattern is settling in, according to Sumner.
"Surface high pressure is moving into the region today, and that will help clear things out, bringing sunshine and drier conditions back to the region after a pretty damp week," he said. "There will still be some cloud cover around the next few days, particularly as a weak disturbance out of northern Alberta slides through the province Saturday, but at this point, we're not expecting rainfall. An upper level trough settles into the area Sunday and Thanksgiving Monday, alongside surface high pressure, and that means mainly sunny conditions both days."
Seasonal, to slightly below average, temperatures are expected Saturday through the early part of next week, ranging between 11 and 14 degrees. Averages for this time of year are 14 daytime and +2 overnight.
Sumner noted the region could also see its first widespread frost event of the Fall this weekend, with Friday through Monday nights all potentially bringing that possibility.
"It really come down to what kind of cloud cover we have overnight, which will insulate those areas that have it," he said. "There will be particularly cool air over the region tonight, but with mainly cloudy conditions expected, we could miss the frost Friday night, but with the expectation of relatively clear to partly cloudy skies Saturday through Monday night, light frost is almost a sure thing."
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